


In the End, I do

by Neferit



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Commission work, F/F, Femslash, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, commission
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-06-30
Packaged: 2018-06-01 05:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6502774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neferit/pseuds/Neferit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stories of how the female LIs got their happy endings with FemShep.</p><p>A story commission by sabor78 over at dA.</p><p>Each chapter is for one pairing.</p><p>Ch1: fem!Shep/Jack<br/>Ch2: fem!Shep/Tali<br/>Ch3: fem!Shep/Miranda<br/>Ch4: fem!Sgep/Ashley (to be written)<br/>Ch5: fem!Shept/Liara (to be written)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To Love is To Be Vulnerable

 

She was weak.

Jack had always known that whenever she allowed herself the weakness that was feelings, she would get herself in trouble.

In _deep_ trouble.

When she was just a kid, hurting and lonely behind the wall of glass, watching the others interact with each other while she was all alone in her cell, screaming at them to notice her, she made the decision of not feeling.

Feelings were for suckers, and she was not one. She was one powerful, vengeful bitch, and when the opportunity to escape came, she went all out tearing apart everyone who stood in her way.

It became easier not to feel, as her own life once again had been out of her control. Being a little girl, out of her cell for the very first time, made her an easy target, no matter her powers, and every time she trusted someone, they twisted her trust against her, and proved to her that she was alone against the world.

Until she met one single person, Marcus, who offered her his heart, and held hers in his palms tenderly, never uttering a single lie to her, no matter how unpleasant the truth might have been. For once, she broke her own rules, and allowed herself to fall for for him, truly, madly, deeply.

In the end, all she had left of him was a single letter,, where he spoke of the future he always hoped they’d have, after he sacrificed himself, so she could survive.

None of that future, bright, loving and warm, would come to pass now, and Jack flew off the handle, destroying everything in her way until she was captured and sent into the worst prison that ever came to be.

_Purgatory_ was a very fitting name, and being one of the few women there was a sentence on its own.

When she finally got out of the cryostasis, it was only to find that the people who got her out had Cerberus logo all over them. Once again, the three headed dog found her.

But the person, who shadowed her with a small team all over the Purgatory, was a calmly looking woman, taller than Jack, the first one to lay down her weapon before they spoke, offering her opportunity to make something with her fucked-up life, agreeing to giving her the data she demanded, allowing her to pick her own space on their new ship.

The first time she went down to speak with her, Jack had been wary. The redhead that commanded the ship, first human Spectre, former Alliance, reminded her of Marcus in some strange way with how she always looked her directly in the eye when she spoke, how her lips would turn up just the tiniest bit when she made some juicy joke, how she refused to let her make this _something_ between them simple, her only explanation being that she, Jack, deserved better.

_Jack deserved better._

The very idea of deserving better hit her so hard that Jack nearly closed off to everyone. But then, in the very last few hours before they were to hit the Omega Four relay, she found she didn’t want to be like that anymore.

Jane gave her a smile when she told her that; the real, slow, gentle rare kind, and even if nothing saucy happened between them, Jack felt as safe, cherished and protected as she haven’t felt since Marcus died.

If only Jane Shepard wasn’t such a goody two shoes. Only goody two shoes actually allow themselves to be put into a cell for doing something while the rest of the galaxy just sists on their collective asses and do big fucking nothing.

And as if that wasn’t quite enough, she made her respectable, too. _Ugh._ They actually made her a teacher at Grissom Academy, where she got to teach bunch of biotic savants how to tear shit apart. It shouldn’t surprise her when Cerberus went after all who remained at the Academy, but what did surprise her was Jane running in with guns blazing, shooting everything with Cerberus logo on it. It probably shouldn’t please her as much as it did, to sucker punch her, but goddamit, it felt marvelous to first punch her, and then kiss her hard, her kids cheering from above.

She made them into support biotic team, just as she asked her to, her kids saving loads of lives with their abilities, even if Jack hated all the paperwork. It made the shoreleave, especially those that connected with Jane’s, all the sweeter.

Once, she made Jane a tattoo, one that would make her easily recognizable. And Jane, of course, saw right through her bullshit, and instead, told her she would like to put a ring on it, as that would be just as recognizable as any ink.

Pressing the engagement ring in her palm now, she caught herself remembering how she clung to the metal circle, when Jane fought for her life in the hospital after the battle of Earth. Jane stood by her side now, wearing a dress just like she did, showing off bunch of scars, the tattoo she made her, and the biggest of smiles she had ever seen on the woman.

All her students, and all their friends, stood by them, as Hackett spoke the words that would legally bind their lives till death did them part, their union not knowing any other ending, just as Jane promised her, and she believed every single one of those words.

Their first married kiss made everyone cheer as if there were no tomorrow, and Jac felt herself smile.

_To love is to be vulnerable,_ she told her, _but with you, I will gladly be vulnerable for all eternity._

For now, she finally got the better she, and Jane with her, always searched for.


	2. Where You Go, I Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To always follow where you will go.

 

Her Pilgrimage just went belly up in one moment of being in the wrong place at just the worst possible time.

Hearing - and recording - something she never should hear, and she almost didn’t survive to tell the tale.

If not for Commander Shepard, marine of the human Alliance, she would have never made it out of the remote side alley her naivete had led her to.

The human offered her her hand to shook, in that strange human gesture, and before Tali took the offered hand, she couldn’t help but have a rather panicky thought about the bad hygiene.

Humans were so full of germs. She really hoped the Commander at least took a shower in the morning.

The ship itself was strange. A gem of modern technology, to be sure, but it was so very quiet and empty, compared to the ships of Quarian fleet… She didn’t sleep properly for a week, before she got used to the silence, no longer mistaking it for a malfunction.

Becoming part of the Normandy crew was rather easy, especially when around the engineers. The Normandy’s pilot called it ‘collective nerdgasm’, when he had seen the reactions from the engineering, when they were told a quarian machinist was about to join them in-between missions.

Stopping a rogue Spectre had been the ultimate goal of this whole endeavour, and although some moments still gave her the creeps (like stealing the Normandy so they could pursue Saren to the mythical world of Ilos), it was something else that was stuck into Tali’s memory, when she heard of Shepard’s death.

The moment the Commander handed her a small package - a PAD with everything they learnt of Geth, that she could bring back to the Fleet, as a result of her Pilgrimage. She hugged the human woman, with not a single thought about all the germs humans carried on their bodies, thanking her over and over again.

And then she was dead, saving her crew and dying in the process.

“Captain never leaves her drowning ship,” Garrus told her in the message she received from him before Shepard’s memorial service, before he too disappeared.

It shocked her immeasurably, when her group crossed paths with a human trio on Freedom’s Progress, and one of them raised the visor of her helmet - and smiling at her was Jane Shepard, woman two years dead.

They haven’t seen each other for months, before Shepard out of all possible people got her out of what very easily could be one hell of suicide, and damn useless, mission on behalf of the Fleet.

This time, she followed the Commander back to Normandy, uncertain of the acceptance of its current crew but that orry disappeared, when she had seen the first friendly faces - Chakwas, Garrus and Joker. There were even more non-humans on board than on the original Normandy - herself, Garrus, Grunt who was a Krogan, Samara who had been an Asari Justicar, and also a Drell assassin.

She had to say that Joker’s remark about Normandy being a flying circus made at least some sense now.

It just wouldn’t have been an already suicide run, if it hadn’t been made even crazier by the Admiralty accusing her of treason.

To say that she was a nervous wreck would have been one hell of an understatement - but there was Jane Shepard, with her stalwart support and the fierceness she spoke to the crowd during her trial, turning it around in such a spectacular way that it made Tali’s head spin, Kal’Reegar and Veetor’Nara joining their voices with hers.

No one ever spoke to her defence like that.

Still, they stripped her of her name, Tali’Zorah vas Neema, naming her Tali’Zorah vas Normandy instead - and watching her crewmates, her Commander, her friend, gave her strength she would never expect.

One day, when Normandy was peacefully flying among the stars, she told Shepard about the custom of linking suits, and what it represented to the Quarians. In a moment of sudden impulse, she told Jane she would be honoured to link suits with her.

Jane Shepard surprised her yet again; the back of her fingers brushing gently against her visor, as she said quietly that the honour would be all hers, leaving her alone, her heart beating madly in her chest afterwards.

Until then, all that Tali knew about dating was what she had seen in Fleet and Flotilla. Jane put a completely different spin on it. They would spend time together, walking around the Citadel, sitting quietly in Jane’s cabin; each other’s presence a quiet constant.

Getting all the immuno-boosts had been a pain in neck, now that Tali thought about it as she drove the lift to Shepard’s cabin. But the opportunity to touch her skin with nothing against them had been too much of a temptation, even if she almost talked herself into a circle before Shepard once again took the lead and instead of shushing her, she simply undid the clasps that held her visor in place, giving her a soft smile, for the first time not distorted by the barrier between them.

The fever and sinuses full of something she didn’t want to think about were worth of the look of delighted surprise that lightened Jane’s face in the things that came afterward.

All good things, however, had to come to an end. With the Collectors destroyed and Shepard submitting herself into Alliance’s custody, they all scattered again, trying to ready their people for the Reapers.

Showed how much any of them could do, when the Reapers truly arrived, and immediately started ripping the galaxy to shreds. Everyone reacted differently, and Tali felt her people completely lost their senses - in the middle of war of survival of every organic species they attacked the geth on Rannoch.

If not for Shepard, who was running herself to the ground to help the war effort, the Geth, the Quarians or both would have paid for this foolishness with their lives. Like this, Shepard once against risked everything, and for that, geth and Quarians stood side by side, rebuilding everything for the time after the Reaper war.

The war was brutal - even more brutal that Tali could ever have a nightmare about. Her Jane, always so strong, faltered, when they lost Thessia, and if not for the slight chance of catching up to Kai Leng, the bastard who stole the Prothean VI from them, she would have probably given up.

But with a fighting chance, no matter how small, her backbone once again straightened and she pushed them forward, all the way to Cerberus base, all the way through the Reaper lines, right until they arrived to the forward camp closest to the Conduit. The time for final push came, and Tali felt giggles, slightly hysterical, bubble out, when Jane asked her, whether she really wants to join her.

“Jane,” she told her, “I went where you went ever since I was an inexperienced young girl on her Pilgrimage, through two suicide missions. You really think that this would be someplace I wouldn’t follow?”

“Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay,” Jane told her months later, standing wish her before the Admiralty Board and what was left of the Alliance Command, holding a silver engraved ring in one hand.

Tali smiled under her visor. “Till death do us part,” she finished what would be their wedding vows and someone, she suspected it had been Jack and her kids, started whistling loudly and cheering, drowning everything the officials said in the ruckus.

Jane gave her the same reassuring smile as always, and held her hand towards her. Taking it, Tali once again followed, this time for a mission that filled her not with dread, but with joy.


	3. The past is always tense, the future perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imperfection is the new perfection.

 

One is perfect in nearly every way, the other as imperfect as she is perfect.

One designed to be that way, one being born that way.

One a femme fatale, the other the cute girl next door.

One a gifted biotic, the other talented marine, each aware of their weaknesses and strengths, and when they fight, side by side, it’s a symphony of biotics and bullets, beautiful and deadly.

When they argue, it’s with calm voices that almost never rise above the normal speech loudness, even if their arguments are heated and ugly.

It’s Jane who pushes them forward, when her sister is in danger, and it’s Jane who asks her for mercy for Niket.

It’s Jane who presses her into meeting her sister face to face after all those years where she carried her as a small babe in her arms to give her a family, a safe home, a better chance at life.

It’s Jane who smiles at her in that slightly off way that makes Miranda’s heart give a tight squeeze.

It’s  _ Jane _ , whose soft lips press against her own in just the right way, her hands pushing away her suit so they are skin to skin, as close as humanly possible.

It’s Jane, who gives her a small smile of reassurances, her calloused hands grasping hers, when they say their farewells; Miranda going into hiding, Jane surrendering to the Alliance, to deliver one more warning concerning the Reaper invasion.

Half a year goes by, and nothing is being done; not by the Council, not by the Alliance. Jane is locked up, and Miranda is chasing any contact she ever had to help with defence against the Reapers, for they  _ are _ coming, and their time is running short; shorter by each day.

And then, their time is up, and the Earth is burning under the assault.

Arranging a meeting with anyone when one is a former Cerberus operative was quite challenging, but nothing Miranda couldn’t do, if only to see the beloved face bright at the sight of her. The war had just started, and Jane already looks tired - tired, but determined, and it’s that moment when Miranda feels a sting of regret.

Once upon a time, she wanted to add just a tiny bit of technology among all those technical marvels that re-animated Jane’s body, before her life was returned to her. Just a tiny bit; one that would give them an advantage, should she decide to work against them.

How ironic that it had been the Illusive Man who prohibited it with enough force to shove someone even when they were just communicating via hologram. Miranda wondered, whether he was regretting it now.

If she knew him at all, he just counted his loses and continued with exactly the same resolve as before, if the attack at the Citadel was any indication.

Jane took Thane’s death badly, shutting herself in her quarters on board the Normandy - only Hackett and Anderson getting to her, kicking her but of the dark place she fell into and right into another adventure. Miranda only heard about it from Joker, but wow, did that sound exactly like the craziness the woman could get into.

She reacted calmly, when Miranda told her of how she wanted to install a control chip in her, when they had the opportunity to meet again.

“Miranda,” she told her with a small smile, the one reserved only for her, “I lost two years of my life. You gave me the rest back - and I want to spend any time I have with you.”

It was bittersweet that few months later found Miranda once again fighting for Shepard’s life. Finally free of her father, and elbow deep in Jane’s innards… that really wasn’t how she imagined the victory-over-Reapers celebration. But the frantic calls from  _ Jack _ of all possible people, urging her to speed the fuck up to London showed how little time together they could have, were she only minutes later.

Right now, the crazy biotic had been howling with laughter, as she stood by Miranda’s side as her bridesmaid - Miranda wearing a cheerleader outfit, while Jane stood there, dressed like a girl scout.

They looked different from when they first fell for each other - scars marring both their faces, and Jane had been leaning heaving on a walking cane, as her legs would probably never be what they once used to be. The reception had been a mess of colours, loudness and crazy music, but that was okay.

No matter what, it could never be anything but perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you would like to commission me as well, you can read my commission policy over [here](http://neferit.deviantart.com/journal/Commission-Info-493055364).


End file.
